USA, BA aim for hardware

MIKE BOGAN

Published 11:32 am, Monday, April 25, 2016

"That district was wide open any team could have won it," said Turmell. "It was just going to go to the team that got the breaks." Bad Axe made its own breaks in beating Unionville-Sebewaing Area and Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port en route to its first district crown since 2000. The 17-14 Hatchets face 16-9 Armada in the second Division 3 regional semifinal Saturday at around noon. Capac takes on 16-16 Reese in the first semifinal at 10 a.m. The winners will meet in the title tilt around 2:15 p.m. In softball, the 32-4-1 Patriots kick things off at 10 a.m. in the first semifinal against 23-10 Armada. A pair of Greater Thumb East teams will battle in the other semifinal at noon when 30-7 Sandusky tangles with 25-11 Marlette at around noon. The winners will meet for the championship at around 2 p.m. The Hatchets got here with an 11-1 win over USA in the district semifinals, and a come-from-behind 13-10 decision over the Lakers in the finals. EPBP led 6-0 after its half of the first inning in that game before the Hatchets rallied. It will take the same kind of effort for the Hatchets to advance this weekend. Armada captured its second straight district crown last weekend, capped by a 5-2 win over Madison Heights Bishop Foley in the finals. Earlier, the Tigers topped Macomb Lutheran North, 6-1, in the semifinals. Last season, Armada advanced all the way to the state semifinals. Armada is led by pitcher William Bryant, who actually won both games for the Tigers last weekend. Kyle Kilpatrick and Ryan Lindeman are Armada's No. 2 and 3 hurlers. Armada's pitchers will have their hands full with the Bad Axe bats. The top of the order for the Hatchets, including Tyler Brown, Geoff Powell, Jason Iskow and Tom Salcido, among others, have been blistering the ball. They all had multiple hits in Bad Axe's wins over USA and EPBP. The biggest thing Bad Axe has done in recent weeks is find a compatible pitcher-catcher combination. While Dave Smith has been Bad Axe's top hurler this season, his batterymate has varied. "We've struggled all year trying to find a catcher," Turmell explained. "That was a major chore. We've used six of them, but we finally decided a couple of weeks ago Tyler (Brown) was the guy." Smith's been the guy, too. He picked up the win over USA in the district semifinals, and then came on and tossed the final few innings against EPBP. "If Dave throws like he did (at districts), I have confidence," Turmell said. Turmell admits his team has been up and down all season. He hopes the "up" team is ready Saturday. "It just depends which team shows up," he said. The Patriots got here by winning their second straight district title, capped by an 8-0 blanking of Cass City in the finals. Earlier, they earned a 14-0 win over the host Hatchets. Armada advanced by winning the district at Madison Heights Bishop Foley, capped by blanking the host team in the finals. Armada hurler Jamie Christian tossed a two-hitter with 10 Ks in the finals. She fanned 13 in the win in the semis. The Patriots have a couple of strikeout artists of their own in Erica Houthoofd and Sarah Alegria. Houthoofd fanned 13 in the win over Bad Axe while Alegria struck out 16 in a no-hitter against the Red Hawks. Coach Dale Koehler is hoping USA's grueling schedule pays off this weekend. The Patriots have played in several top-notch tournaments throughout the season, as well as the super-competitive GTW. "We told the kids that we knew we were going to have some losses," Koehler said. "The competition was great. We just didn't want to get smoked in those tournaments, and then have the girls get down from it. But we played some very good ball." Koehler has high praise for the other teams in this regional. "I would say it's probably one of the toughest regionals in the state," he said. "Everybody there is very respectable." USA is looking to get back to Battle Creek. Last year, the Patriots dropped a 1-0 decision to Gladstone in the state semifinals. The winner of this regional will advance to the quarterfinals at Essexville-Garber on Tuesday to play the winner of the Saginaw Nouvel regional. Baseball teams in that regional include Birch Run (24-11), Freeland (23-11), Durand (21-8) and Nouvel (25-13). Softball teams in that regional include Lake Fenton, Saginaw Swan Valley (24-13), Birch Run (34-5) and Freeland (37-3).